Invitation to attend the Institute for Economic Research on Innovation (IERI) SEMINAR
Seminar Topic: The Viability of Systems of Innovation in the SADC Region
From the systems of innovation perspective, the regional integration process in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) may be seen as the transition from national to regional systems of innovation. The main impediment to this transition is the paradoxical combination of the excess of similarly resource based economies and a wide variability in the viability of the national systems of innovation within the SADC. This presentation starts off with an elaboration of the particular version of the system of innovation approach which is adopted for this study and of the measures by which the success, actual or potential, of a regional system can be assessed. The prospects for a successful transition to an effective regional system of innovation will be assessed using a “modes of innovation” framework and through the development of viability criteria for national systems of innovation within the region. This framework will enable a classification of the various national systems of innovation within the region and draw out the implications of diverse systems for the long term viability of a SADC system of innovation. The presentation ends with a brief discussion of the policy implications of this study.
Presenter: Professor Mario Scerri is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Economic Research on Innovation (IERI) and a Professor of Economics in the Faculty of Economics and Finance at the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) in South Africa. He is also a member of the Centre of Excellence in Scientometrics and STI Policy (Tshwane University of Technology and the University of Stellenbosch) and a Professor Extraordinary at the University of Stellenbosch. His research focus is on the evolution of innovation systems, specifically within sub-Saharan Africa, primarily from a political economy perspective. He has also worked on various aspects of the national systems of innovation of the BRICS economies. He is the author of The Evolution of the South African System of Innovation since 1916, a co-editor of three books on the national systems of innovation in the BRICS, and a co-editor of the book Measuring Innovation in OECD and non-OECD Countries.
Venue: IERI, 159 Nana Sita Street, Pretoria, 0001
Date: 11 September 2015
Time: 12h00-13h30
Kindly RSVP to Ms. Bongiwe Khoza at Khozaba@tut.ac.za by Tuesday 08 September 2015.
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